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Also, I still stand by
Damnation
--especially now that I'm playing
Midnight Reaper
and
Dusk Legion Zealot
, my life total is kind of a precious resource--sure, toxic deluge might be worth it anyhow, but it also kills my commander (read: I get my board state back after a damnation), so it's not strictly worse--though, I might consider playing deluge over
Oblivion Stone
, even though that card is my one way of dealing with problem enchantments, for instance.

There are probably still better Shirei decks out there that still wouldn't qualify him for tier 3, but, frankly, even given a casual glance, tier 3 could easily be split up into multiple tiers (or just not have so many commanders crammed in it, and maybe we add a new bottom tier). I mean,
Ghost Council of Orzhova
and
Ambassador Laquatus
probably shouldn't be in the same category as
Aminatou, the Fateshifter
and
Oloro, Ageless Ascetic
, for instance. All the same, just in case these somehow weren't already obvious, let me detail a few of the more interesting interactions Shirei has with some of the dorks in this deck:

Mesmeric Fiend
has an O-ring trick going on where, if we sacrifice him before his first ability resolves, the second ability triggers and does nothing, then we exile a card from our opponent's hand permanently. Doing that every turn with a sac outlet can be pretty good, and if you do it for long enough, you'll have everyone topdecking. I used to play
Brain Maggot
in this vein, but later learned that that works differently--it's all wrapped up into one ability, so if he dies before it resolves, during resolution, we take a card, the game sees that it's dead, then we immediately return it to their hand. Not very good, obviously.

Coffin Queen
has a slightly different but effectively equivalent O-ring trick--if she's sacrificed before her ability resolves, the ability resolves, but since she's dead, the game doesn't remember her as an object and the delayed trigger of the ability can never happen, so we keep the creature permanently. When
Coffin Queen
comes back, she is, of course, a new object with a different timestamp.

Oh, and, in case this one wasn't obvious, cards like
Mindless Automaton
work with Shirei because their power is 1 or less when they enter the graveyard, thus triggering Shirei's ability, and their power doesn't become more than 1 until they've already entered the battlefield, as per layering rules.

2 weeks ago

I've seen Phyrexian Ingester and Duplicant, and they certainly do work. The reason they aren't in is because I already have 7 removal cards which can only affect creatures, 3.5 of which kill all of them anyway (Luminate Primordial is the .5).

Planar Guide is very unique. One shot telegraphed instant speed delay flicker for ALL creatures. Can work like a fog. Can backfire against other ETB creatures. Also does Homeward Path. Wraths tokens. Undoes Ixidron. I'm having a hard time evaluating this, cool card.

Mnemonic Wall is what I would consider a core card in the deck *facepalm. Now I just have to make room. I'm very surprised it does not appear on the EDHREC page.

1 month ago

Mana ramp decks are fun, though I tend to be more of an Izzet/dragon player. Overall, it seems pretty good, with a good mix of small creatures ramping into bigger creatures.

My main concern is the lands. Only twenty of your cards are plains and/or forests. I would recommend increasing that number, mostly of Karametra's ability. Homeward Path I don't believe would come into play enough to be worth it, though that depends on your local meta.

Gateway Plaza seems bad for this deck. You don't need access to every colour, or most colours, and the drawbacks for the card don't seem worth it when you're only playing 2 colours. Command Tower seems a better choice. Less so Survivors' Encampment, but you don't need to tap your creatures for mana, and if you don't need that extra mana, don't do it.

High Market again seems not worth the cost, this is a creature based deck, and you shouldn't be saccing creatures for only a gain of 1 life, and it only nets you colourless mana.

Emeria, The Sky Ruin seems like it would better as a plains. Getting creatures back is good yes, but this doesn't allow to cast them, it just puts them back into play. Not what this card needs, and there are many cheap spells in green that put cards back into your hand from the graveyard. Wildwood Rebirth comes to mind.

Sylvan Primordial is also just stright up bannd in commander. If your playgroup is cool with that, that's cool, but you should be aware.

But overall, I love the deck. It seems like it would be pretty fun to play.

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